Carol (15) @ Ropery Hall

Patricia Highsmith’s controversial, keynote lesbian novel, The Price of Salt, is brought lovingly to the screen by director Todd Haynes, in resplendent Far from Heaven fashion. No one is better at nuanced melodrama in the classic Hollywood style than Haynes, and with two high-calibre leading ladies exercising coiffed poise, era-sensitive intelligence and sophistication in every fabulous-looking frame, this exquisite romance is both chic and chilly in correct proportion before it explodes in tear-jerking emotional transparency. A stunning masterpiece, front-loaded with atmospheric mood and poignant tenderness.